Dozens of Secret Service agents working at White House without clearance - report

U.S. Secret Service agents keep watch from the roof of the White House in Washington. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst) / Reuters

​Dozens of security agents have been reportedly working in the White House without the appropriate clearance after the Secret Service had to rapidly hire more staff following a string of embarrassing breaches.

“Without the
clearance, you could share information by mistake. I trust
everyone on my staff, but there are only a few with a top-secret
clearance. They know the zero tolerance that any of us have for
inappropriately sharing this information,” said Republican
Congressman Mark Meadows to The Washington Post, after receiving
a tip from a whistleblower on the staff.

Staff who had not gone through a lie detector test, a background
check and other measures required to obtain the top-secret
security clearance required of all Secret Service personnel on
the site were not only patrolling the territory, but may have
been privy to confidential meetings and private conversations.

Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy confirmed Meadows’
findings, but blamed them on an “administrative
backlog.”

“The director has taken immediate steps to accelerate the
top-secret adjudication process and has allocated additional
resources to ensure that this is completed as quickly as
possible,” said Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary.

The agency now says that it will issue all officers with a
clearance by the end of the working week. Meadows told the Post
that it was “very puzzling” that the situation went on
unaddressed for months, and yet will now be resolved in a matter
of days.

Last September, a man was able to infiltrate the White House by
simply jumping over the fence and wrestling an agent to the
ground when was he was inside, an incident that led to the
resignation of Clancy’s predecessor.

Yet, earlier this year, a drunk government employee was able to
land a drone on the lawn in front of the building unimpeded.
Several more men have been stopped from sneaking into the White
House under false pretenses in the past year, including one who
attempted to enter just as a construction crew was leaving the
building.